CG (Rtd) Emmanuel Gasana has been granted temporary release. File Photo.
Rwanda Correctional Service (RCS) has confirmed that the former Governor of Eastern Province CG(Rtd) Emmanuel Gasana has been temporarily released to attend to a personal matter -his son’s wedding, which is scheduled this weekend.
SP Daniel Rafiki Kabanguka, RCS Spokesperson, told Kigali Today on Friday that CG(Rtd) Gasana, was not granted clemency as it has widely circulated on social media, following a photo showing him posing alongside his wife, son Edwin Cyubahiro Gasana, and bride Tesi Uwibambe, daughter of Uganda’s Gen. Kale Kayihura, who is also in the photo with his wife.
The photo led speculation, with many claiming that Gasana, who is facing charges of abuse of office, asking and accepting favors, was granted a pardon but RCS came out to clear the air, explaining that he was granted temporarily release, a right incarcerated people are granted by the law, to attend to a crucial matter.
“He was not pardoned as it has been reported but he was rather granted temporary release as it is stipulated in article 27, clause 5 of law no 022/2022 of 29/09/2022 Governing Correctional Services,” SP Kabanguka said.
“We also want to state that he is not the first to benefit from this provision of the law,” he added.
Article 27 on going out of a correctional facility states that “an incarcerated person is allowed to go out of the correctional facility for one of the following reasons: to appear before court, to seek medical treatment, to carry out works approved by the administration of the correctional facility,”
An individual can also be granted temporary release when he or she is summoned by a competent governmental organ or any other reason not contrary to the standard operating procedures of the Organ as approved by the administration of correctional facility, the condition under which CG (Rtd) Gasana was released.
According to the law, the administration of a correctional facility provides enough correctional officers to escort incarcerated persons allowed to go out of the correctional facility.
Previously, on November 22, CG Gasana was denied bail by Nyagatare Primary court on grounds that he could be a flight risk or jeopardize investigations if ever released on bail. The date for the substantive trial is yet to be announced.
Gasana is accused seeking favours from an entrepreneur Eric Karinganire and using his position for personal gain.
In an interesting tale of cross-border love, CG (Rtd) Gasana’s son is set to marry Uwibambe, who is the daughter of Gen. Kayihura, a former Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Uganda. Gasana himself was the Inspector General of Rwanda National Police (RNP) between 2009 to 2018.
